Severe Maternal Morbidity at the Intersection of Race and Disability: Evidence of Compounded Disparities in the U.S. Maternal Healthcare System.

Objectives. To examine how socioeconomic status (SES) shaped intraracial health disparities among Black women before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. Using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data (2018-2023; n = 89 634 Black women), we analyzed temporal trends in self-rated health, days of poor physical and mental health, and SES (education, income, employment). Results. Educational disparities in self-rated health temporarily compressed during the pandemic (health disparity decreased by 3.9%) before partially reexpanding after the pandemic. Income-based physical health disparities persisted: the lowest-income women reported 7.48 poor physical health days before the pandemic versus 2.38 days for highest-income peers. Mental health decreased universally, with lowest-income women reporting 7.00 poor mental health days per year after the pandemic versus 6.09 days before the pandemic. Unemployed women experienced temporary pandemic-period health improvements (b = -2.07; P = .05) Conclusions. Although the pandemic temporarily compressed educational disparities, income and employment-based inequities persisted or widened, underscoring SES as a partial buffer and site of structural health inequality. Public Health Implications. Sustaining pandemic-era protections (expanded health care, income supports) and prioritizing mental health equity are critical to addressing systemic inequities exacerbated by crises. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(4):502-511. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308348).

Cardiovascular disease mortality among women diagnosed with de novo metastatic breast cancer.

ABSTRACT The paper looks at women professionals and their disputes over the reshaping of professional forces, within the context of democratic backsliding in Brazil. We examine discord regarding professional identification, affirmative action for Black people and women, political polarization, and democratic backsliding itself. Our aim is to identify situations in which these issues become a tug-of-war or in which the negotiation of meanings through professional interactions can be observed. We apply the concept of legal complex, a notion which transcends boundaries between professions, to consider this space as one of interconnection between women legal practitioners. In addition, we examine the difference between intersectionality ‘from below’ and ‘from above’, to capture how these women refer to the mutual relationship between gender and race in their careers. Focusing on moral agency, the paper addresses how such women carry out boundary work regarding professional positions and race and gender identifications, as well as in the way they delimit legal expertise vis-a-vis politics. This paper selects 10 interviews with female legal professionals from the empirical data set of a broad ongoing research project. Highlighting moral agency as a form of professional action, interviews show its connection to gender, race, professional position and ideology.

An effective HIV vaccine could significantly reduce HIV incidence, but demand for future HIV vaccines will be affected by misinformation. We conducted an online survey (March-April 2024) to identify the misinformation claims most likely to deter young women in South Africa (n = 188) from receiving an HIV vaccine. Participants rated HIV-vaccine misinformation as most concerning (i.e. would make them not want to get vaccinated) and least concerning (i.e. would not change a decision to get vaccinated). From 54 misinformation claims found in peer-reviewed and grey literature (e.g., reports), participants viewed two sets of 9 randomly chosen claims. Within each set, they selected the 3 most concerning and 3 least concerning claims. Claims were ranked according to their likelihood of being selected as most or least concerning. Misinformation claims that were rated as most concerning were about HIV vaccine safety, particularly those suggesting severe adverse health effects (e.g. the vaccine "will kill you", selected 85% of times viewed). Also rated as concerning were claims that the vaccine was created to harm certain populations (e.g., "designed to sterilise Black women", 60% selected); that the vaccine increases rape and pregnancies (51% selected); and gives you HIV (50% selected). The least concerning misinformation related to the themes of stigma, vaccine efficacy, and the availability of other HIV prevention options. Misinformation that the HIV vaccine causes harm, increases risky behaviour, and gives recipients HIV may have the greatest impact on vaccination intentions. Research is needed to design and test interventions that build resistance to such misinformation.

"It's Finding the Time to Prioritize Ourselves": Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to Explore Young Black Women's Attitudes, Norms, and Beliefs Toward Mental Health Care.

When endarkened feminists speak of healing, it is often a healing of the mind, body, and spirit. In this Nkwaethnography, I share the spiritual healing that began while I was on a 10-day “Writing Our Lives retreat” in Ghana, West Africa, with Dr. Cynthia Dillard (Nana Mansa II of Mpeaseam). The guiding research question for this work is: What does it mean to heal the academic self in Ghana, the land of my ancestors? Three overarching themes emerged from my analysis: The land and earth, the ancestors, and the work. This paper contributes to the literature on the ways Black women resist oppressive educational institutions and their spiritual strivings while countering hegemony in the academy.

Black women face a disproportionate risk of perinatal mental mood disorders with significant implications for maternal and infant health outcomes. Identifying the determinants of Black maternal mental health is needed to inform the development of culturally concordant programs and policy interventions. This scoping review aims to identify and explore the sociocultural and structural determinants of Black maternal mental health. Following the methodological frameworks proposed by Arksey and O'Malley and reworked by Levac etal., searches were conducted in four databases: CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar. Studies published in English between January 2010 and December 2024 were included. A total of 4280 studies were retrieved. Two team members independently screened the articles, and conflicts were resolved by a third member. The data were extracted and analyzed thematically to identify the socio-cultural and structural determinants of Black maternal mental health. Twenty-two studies were included in the final review. The review identified gendered racial stress, sociocultural expectations about strength, mental health-related stigma, racism in healthcare, health insurance coverage, socioeconomic status, relationship status, neighborhood conditions, level of educational attainment, and availability of social support as determinants of Black maternal mental health. These determinants are not mutually exclusive but intersect in complex ways to influence Black maternal mental health outcomes. Findings from this review underscore the need for designing community and equity-informed interventions and programs to address health inequities and promote maternal mental health. Future research should focus on culturally and contextually grounded approaches to guide the development of innovative maternal mental health interventions.

Black women's embodied intersecting systems of oppression: A systematic narrative review of body image and maladaptive eating behavior.

This article examines the growing crisis of maternal mortality among Black women in the United States, concentrating on the healthcare system's impact on the quality of pre- and postnatal care received by this population. Insufficient care and systemic inequities have reinforced life-threatening outcomes and excessively increased maternal mortality rates. The World Health Organization estimated 700 maternal deaths occur annually in the United States due to pregnancy-related difficulties, with Black women accounting for the majority. According to data from the National Vital Statistic System, the 2022 maternal mortality rate for Black women was 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births-disproportionately higher than rates among White, Hispanic, and Asian women. Research has demonstrated that more than half of maternal mortalities are avertible, underscoring deep concern among healthcare workers. This article discusses strategies to reduce the number of maternal deaths among Black women, including providing (a) pre- and postnatal care awareness for women in impoverished areas; (b) diversity, equity, and inclusion training for healthcare professionals; and (c) routine social work screening to high-risk women to ensure healthcare needs are met. The objective of the article is to increase awareness of the crisis of maternal mortality, so as to take action and commit to a systemic change.

Although there has been an increase in research on Black women and microaggressions, the purpose of this study was to examine the relations between two types of microaggressions-racial and gendered racial microaggressions-and hypervigilance, a known symptom of anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder. We were also interested in whether gendered racial microaggressions accounted for variance over and above racial microaggressions in predicting hypervigilance in Black women both cross-sectionally and over time. Participants were 236 Black women in the Midwest who completed this study in a research laboratory. Results from a series of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that gendered racial microaggressions predicted variance in hypervigilance over and above the effect of racial microaggressions over time. This study highlights the incremental impact of gendered racial microaggressions-a type of intersectional stressor-on hypervigilance over and above what could be explained by racial microaggressions alone, which further supports the value of using intersectional frameworks and measures when conducting research on Black women's health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

ABSTRACT Sexual assault (SA) is a significant problem among college women. Black college women engage in some of the most common SA risk behaviors (e.g. alcohol use, hookups) less frequently than White women yet experience SA at similar rates. A better understanding of Black college women’s SA risk is needed. This three-phase (P1-P3) study (P1 and P2 focus groups and P3 feedback interviews), was designed to address this objective. P1 (N = 4) was conducted to determine culturally appropriate tone and content for P2 groups. P2 participants (N = 27), were queried about perceptions of specific SA risks for Black college women, and later (P3) provided feedback on how investigators had summarized these findings. P2 thematic analysis revealed themes both consistent with and distinct from prior college SA literature. Specifically, like White women, Black college women report risks around alcohol use and hookups. Dissimilarly, they emphasized pressures – both internal and external – in committed sexual relationships and described experiences of racialized objectification and perceived hypersexuality. Findings highlight racialized ways that men sexually objectify and pressure Black college women to engage in sexual activities, as well as women’s internal struggles regarding sexual decisions. The extensive nature of risk factors Black college women report illustrates a complex and potentially unique landscape of SA risk.

Postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder (PPTSD) is a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder that disproportionately affects women of color. Despite racial disparities in prevalence, treatment, and health outcomes in maternal mental health, there is limited research exploring PPTSD within a Black sample. This study used a reproductive justice framework to examine risk factors for the development of PPTSD in 159 Black women who were within the first year postpartum. Findings include a prevalence rate of 12% for new onset of PPTSD in the context of traumatic childbirth; moreover, 26% of participants endorsed clinically significant trauma symptoms while remaining below the diagnostic threshold. Perceived medical discrimination and history of trauma reliably predicted PPTSD symptoms. Births requiring greater obstetric intervention were associated with greater PPTSD symptoms. Clinical implications and recommendations are provided on systemic, institutional, and individual levels.

Epidemiologists speculate that comparatively high rates of fetal death among males conceived by non-Hispanic Black (NHB) women in the United States (USA) could explain the unexpectedly low neonatal death rate among extremely preterm (ePTB) NHB males. Consistent with this 'selection in utero' argument, conception cohorts exhibiting high sex ratios (M:F) of NHB stillbirths reportedly exhibit greater NHB advantages in ePTB male neonatal death rates. Sceptics, however, attribute this association to an artefact that spuriously inflates the denominators of neonatal death rates in highly stressed populations. To determine whether the positive association over conception cohorts between the NHB male neonatal death advantage and the sex ratio of NHB stillbirths survives correction for inflated denominators. We retrieved vital statistics for NHB and non-Hispanic white (NHW) singleton ePTB infants born in the USA from 1995 through 2018. We aggregated these data into 282 monthly conception cohorts. We avoided the inflated denominator problem by substituting a 'NHB share of burden' variable for the difference between NHB and NHW neonatal death rates. We specify this variable as the NHB proportion of neonatal deaths among NHB and NHW ePTB males born from each conception cohort. We determined, using Box-Jenkins methods, whether cohorts exhibiting unusually high sex ratios of NHB stillbirths also exhibited unusually low NHB shares of the burden of ePTB male neonatal death. Consistent with the selection in utero argument, the NHB share of neonatal deaths among ePTB males fell 7% below expected among the cohorts exhibiting unusually high sex ratios of NH Black stillbirths. Stillbirth affects the composition of birth cohorts by selecting against less fit males in conception cohorts. Although clinical manifestations of this bias remain largely unexplored, they likely include the Black male neonatal death paradox.

"They Didn't Believe Me": Exploring Perinatal Care Experiences Among Black Women Bereaved by Stillbirth.

Over the last 30 years, the diversity of male representation in heist films has exploded, encompassing racial diversity, class distinctions, and the binary choice of being a willing participant or coerced in their respective heists. However, women’s representation in heist films remains limited, with a growing gap in representation, especially for Black women within these narratives. Currently, scholars have not yet adequately theorized or engaged with the significance of Black women's representations in the heist film genre. To address this literature gap, this paper critically analyzes representation in heist films that center on Black women like Jackie Brown (Tarantino 1997) and Widows (McQueen 2018). Two major theoretical perspectives inform this filmic analysis. The first is Julian Hanich’s critical study of heist film conventions. Hanich examines key themes of the heist genre, including freedom, social mobility, and spatial access, along with exclusion. Employing Hanich’s scholarship as a framework, my paper reveals that Black women characters transform thematic meanings of the heist film as Hanich’s scholarship starts and ends with male-centric narratives. The second is Katherine McKittrick’s work on Black women and social geography. Considering the geographic nature of the heist film, McKittrick’s study of Black women’s geography—which she defines as the interplay of domination and concealment underscored by the social production of space— illuminates Hanich’s thematic examination of the genre. By using both Hanich’s and McKittrick’s framework, this article focuses on how heist films that center Black women operate as filmic examples of Black women’s geography as these characters transgress the most social boundaries like racialize doubt, get shown more of their characterization to better identify with them, and have an innate knowledge of their social geography by utilizing public space.

This paper asks: What kinds of interactions do heterosexual Black women experience along their sexual journeys? And how do these interactions impact their sexual subjectivities? Analysis of intimate life history interviews with Black heterosexual cisgender women ( n = 31), ages 34 to 58, indicates that they experienced hegemonic interpellations and subversive interpellations. Hegemonic interpellations describe interactions in which the women’s sexualities were misrecognized as deviant or exploitable. These interactions constrained their sexual subjectivities. This article introduces the concept subversive interpellations to describe interactions in which the women’s sexualities were recognized as acceptable, worth nurturing, or worth knowing. These interactions expanded the women’s sexual subjectivities. Findings suggest that sexual subjectivity is an interactional process shaped by structural racism, sexism, and heteronormativity. Ultimately, the paper argues that subversive interpellations are an important way that people undermine the social order in interaction.

Cancer accounts for about 20% of late maternal deaths in the United States. This study described nationwide patterns of pregnancy-associated cancer mortality among women aged 15-54 years from 2018 to 2023. We conducted a serial cross-sectional study using CDC WONDER data, including all live births and pregnancy-associated cancer deaths from 2018-2023. Mortality rates were estimated by census region, state, and race and ethnicity, and the proportional contribution of specific cancers was assessed. During 2018-2023, 731 pregnancy-associated cancer deaths occurred, a rate of 3.3 per 100,000 live births. Non-Hispanic Black women had the highest rate (4.8 per 100,000). Rates varied geographically, with the South highest and the West, particularly California, lowest. Breast cancer, hematologic malignancies, and colorectal cancer together accounted for nearly half of deaths. Pregnancy-associated cancer mortality varied by region, state, and race and ethnicity, with breast, hematologic, and colorectal cancers as leading causes.

ABSTRACT This article situates the everyday liberation politics of community activist Vesta Smith within the recent historiography that recovers the overlooked contributions of black women in South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggles, participating in ongoing efforts to restore epistemic justice. It expands this scholarship by broadening the study of protest politics beyond formal organisations and after 1994. Born in Johannesburg and forcibly displaced to the coloured area of Noordgesig (Soweto) in 1941, Vesta remained there for life, a life that itself became a praxis of resistance rooted in her community. During the Soweto uprisings, Ma Vesta or Ma Vee, as she came to be known, was recognised as a senior activist for her earlier participation in the signing of the Freedom Charter and the Women’s March. Operating primarily outside organisational politics, she was a key figure in connecting banned movements and youth-led protests and sustaining multiple anti-apartheid networks across generations, ideologies, and townships. The article foregrounds Vesta’s lifelong commitment to non-racialism, non-sectarianism, and social justice – principles grounded in her Christian faith – and highlights her continued engagement with the social, economic, and political challenges of the post-apartheid period.

In the US and global medical systems, research has shown that black women, generally, disproportionately experience higher rates of maternal and infant mortality due to implicit bias and systemic anti-black racism. Accordingly, black women, including doulas and midwives, continue to rethink alternative practices grounded in African epistemologies to advance birthing, healing, and wellbeing within black communities. This article conducts a transnational black feminist analysis of the birthing epistemologies and healing practices of African and African diasporic women (AADW) in the diaspora, particularly in the US. We frame birthing as a critical site of black feminist intervention for theorizing wellbeing as AADW return, physically and epistemologically, to Africa to reclaim and repurpose ancestral knowledge. Our analyses show that AADW use birthing as a radical site for: sharing knowledge reciprocally, enacting transnational communal black wellness, refusing epistemic erasure, trusting black women’s knowledge of their bodies, and reclaiming African ancestral identities. We argue that the multidirectional relationships between Africans and diasporans demonstrate the transnational exchange of gendered birthing knowledge, prompting new approaches to diaspora scholarship and rethinking gendered wellness in transnational Blackness. Theoretically, we draw from black and African feminist standpoint theories and African epistemological concepts such as Ubuntu and Omoluabi, which necessitate communal interconnectedness and responsibility. These frameworks allow us to frame “return” as multidirectional and shared epistemological encounters grounded in the oral histories and experiences of the AADW drawn from the US, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania. Within the discourse of return, our work offers new insights into how African birthing epistemologies are translated into contemporary wellness practices and emphasizes gendered reciprocal connections between African diasporic communities. It expands black and African feminist discourses by integrating birthing traditions and maternal wellness as critical yet underexplored sites of decolonial praxis.